Migration Trends in Selected Applicant Countries”, the Following Volumes Are Available

cover SK qx V 15/1/04 12:25 Page 1 Sharing Experience… Accession to the EU is expected to bring about changes in migratory routes and destinations, as well as societal changes in the future EU member states. How do new migration trends affect the local societies of these countries? How is the integration of migrants possible in societies marked mostly by emigration throughout the 1990ies? Which approaches do governments envisage in the different countries? Are they becoming countries of immigration – what can be expected after May 2004? This booklet is part of a product of comprehensive research and analysis of migration trends in each of six participating EU accession countries. olume V – Slovakia The research project has been supported by the European Commission, V DG Employment and Social Affairs, under the European Social Fund budget Migration Trends line “Analysis of and research on the social situation, demography and the family” and has been managed by IOM Vienna. in Selected Applicant Countries Under the title “Migration Trends in Selected Applicant Countries”, the following volumes are available: Volume I – Bulgaria: The Social Impact of Seasonal Migration. Volume II – The Czech Republic: The Times They Are A-Changin. Volume III – Poland: Dilemmas of a Sending and Receiving Country. Volume IV – Romania: More ‘Out’ than ‘In’ at the Crossroads between Migration Trends Europe and the Balkans. Volume V – Slovakia: An Acceleration of Challenges for Society. Volume VI – Slovenia: The perspective of a Country on the ‘Schengen Periphery’. Volume V – Slovakia The reader may expect comprehensive information on the situation of migrants both, in and out of the countries, and the countries’ migration An Acceleration of Challenges for Society management approaches, with the main purpose to illustrate the impact of migration trends on the local society and the social situation in the country. IOM European Commission Project: “Sharing Experience: Migration Trends in Selected Applicant Countries and Lessons Learned from the ‘New Countries of Immigration‘ in the EU and Austria” VOLUME V – Slovak Republic An Acceleration of Challenges for Society By Boris Divinský International Organization for Migration - Bratislava This country report on Migration Trends in the Slovak Republic forms part of a publication series of six volumes, which have evolved under the roof of the European Commission funded project “Sharing Experience: Migration Trends in Selected Applicant Countries and Lessons Learned from the ‘New Countries of Immigration’ in the EU and Austria” managed by the International Organization for Migration Mission with Regional Functions for Central Europe in Vienna, Austria. Publisher: International Organization for Migration Project co-ordinator: Pier Rossi-Longhi Scientific co-ordinator: Martin Kunze IOM is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. As an intergovernmental body, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to: assist in meeting the operational challenges of migration; advance understanding of migration issues; encourage social and economic development through migration; and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants. International Organization for Migration Nibelungengasse 13/4 1010 Vienna Austria Tel.: +43-1-5853322-0 Fax: +43-1-5853322-30 Email: [email protected] Internet: http://www.iomvienna.at Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Organization for Migration or of the European Commission. ISBN 92-9068-185-3 © 2004 International Organization for Migration III PREFACE Migration to the EU Migration to the European Union continues to be a disputed issue throughout Europe. Starting in the 1960s it began with the recruitment of migrant workers by some Western European countries and through family reunification in the 1970s, the process then continued with most Western European countries successively becoming countries of immigration. This has not necessarily been an intended process, but has become a fact in the better-off countries of the EU. New EU members in the north and in the south have seen their immigration figures rise after accession, partly as a result of related increased economic growth. Countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece – all situated on the EU periphery, where emigration had previously prevailed – had to adapt quickly to the new situation in the course of the 1990s. In terms of policy, the process suffered from a lack of experience, so the management of the flows was often not ideal and local societies were taken by surprise to a certain degree. The surge in immigration has mainly been fed by people seeking protection from the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and by the fall of the iron curtain, which has allowed citizens of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) to move. They made use of this possibility in direction of the prospering EU. Policy developments, notably linked to freedom of movement and to irregular migration, have carefully been described and analysed in two previous publications jointly produced by IOM and ICMPD: “Migration in Central and Eastern Europe. 1999 Review” and “New Challenges for Migration Policy in Central and Eastern Europe”. With the accession of 10 new member states to the EU in May 2004 (and two more in 2007), these countries are likely to follow the path of the previous EU accession countries and, in turn, become countries of immigration. With increased global mobility and a growing number of severe conflicts and wars, people seeking shelter from Africa and Asia have become a growing source of migrants in recent years. Their paths of migration are directed to the EU and often lead through the accession countries. In this process, in spite of fortified border protection and the “safe third countries” rule, which has become a standard in the states of the EU, accession countries are increasingly becoming target countries of migration. For their societies, this means a rapid change from countries almost without migration via strong emigration to more immigration in the future. This scenario requires preparation and careful planning. On the other hand and on the background of demographic trends, this may be a rather desirable change. According to projections of the EC, the population of all accession countries in Central and Eastern Europe has a tendency to decrease, a fact likely to pose significant problems to economy and society in the future. Compared to Western European countries, where the established migration chains will soften the population losses for a longer period, the future eastern border countries of the EU will increasingly face this problem no later than 2010. In relation to this, one very important characteristic of globalisation, that is especially relevant when talking about migration, is that causes and effects can happen in completely different parts of the world. This simple fact is even more significant if one comes to think that the interdependency of migration to social economic or political IV factors is extremely high. The globalisation of economy and politics, the continuos merging of cultural factors and the shortening of distances by the availability of quick and cheap transportation, makes regular migration always hard to isolate as a regional phenomenon or to control by national means. We have come to understand that Migration has its own internal dynamics. These particular dynamics – sensitive of course to external factors –can be maybe best compared with what liberals would describe as a marketplace. A place, where reality is the clash product of a demand and an offer, and where intervention can only be done with observance to these mechanisms. Arbitrary intervention can and does usually lead to unwanted results. Before we attempt to develop this concept, let us enumerate briefly three more assumptions that are relevant for these internal dynamics, when discussing the marketplace approach: 1. First of all, the quantitative (as opposed to qualitative) degree of migratory movements always depends on the extent to which restrictive actions have hindered the migration process previously. Recent history of the continent has illustrated significantly enough this statement and comparing 1980 and 1990 statistics gives you a clear picture. 2. Very much related to the above assumption, one could safely talk about fluctuating cycles in migration, with ascending lines, peaks and regressions. In Europe, most of the Candidate Countries have passed their peaks in producing migration in the mid-90s. 3. Migration, especially the one motivated economically, is more sensitive to pull than to push factors. This assumption is very much relevant in Europe today, and it radically contradicts whoever states that the European Union has little to offer to migrants. The fact is that there are jobs available in the Union today, particularly in certain areas of the labour market. Migrants will satisfy this demand within or outside a regulated framework. Further it might very well be that legislators and policy maker who want to intervene in a certain manner on this marketplace would only be able to succeed by working precisely at these pull-factors. The way some countries do it – maybe the most relevant are the US and Canada – proving that they have understood this reality by attracting qualified migrants from all over the world, becoming preferred destinations

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